PETA India has been bombarded with complaints from people who were horrified to learn from this news video that a donkey was brutally killed in Churu on 7 August 2011. We have been informed by locals that this cruelty took place on the order of Govind Mhansariya, Chair of Nagar Parishad, Churu district.
The video footage shows that the donkey was pushed and pulled to ground before being crushed to death by a bulldozer. The killing reportedly took place because some local residents thought the donkey might have rabies because the donkey had been examining a dead dog – even though this behaviour is not a confirmatory symptom for rabies.
Besides being an act of gross cruelty, torturing an animal is an illegal and punishable offense under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Further, a procedure for the destruction of ill and suffering animals is set out in the act, and a government veterinarian should have been called to provide a medical opinion on the matter and to euthanise the animal humanely if required.